


Oh Sweet Traveler, There's Only One bed!

by Iamsuperconfused



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, First Time, Minor canon divergence, THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED, a tiny dash of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 03:14:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20464100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamsuperconfused/pseuds/Iamsuperconfused
Summary: During the Mighty Nein's travel between two point, they find themselves at a roadside inn.  Jester buys a night in the fanciest room of the Embermare's Inn and attempt to reconnect with Beau as her roommate, however, she didn't count on there being only one bed.Oh my god, there's only one bed.





	Oh Sweet Traveler, There's Only One bed!

**Author's Note:**

> The Embermare's Charge
> 
> +1 Warhammer 1d8 + 2d6 fire damage Versatile (1d10). Grant the Wielder and their mount fire and cold resistance. The weapon gives off a glow the equivalent of a torch. It can get brighter once a day if you speak the command word.

Tonight, our group rest at the Embermare Inn. An establishment almost hidden amidst the trees littering the roadside between destinations. The wooden floor creaks under their feet for the first few steps into the inn, the warmth permeate through the lobby from the fireplace. Above it hangs a large war-hammer that seems to draw the embers of the fire to dance around its head. 

A slate rest against the hardwood counter with prices for rooms, meals and entertainment. While the pricing seems reasonable for the most part, the suites advertised have a decadent price tag attached to them, ranging from as little as 20 gold for the Mare’s Hearth to a stunning 100 gold for the Embermare Imperial.

The food being served to the patrons smells better than what most of the mighty nein has ever had prior to their adventuring journey. The menu is elaborate, detailed and slightly overpriced.

Caleb however, notices something about the fine print of most of the advertisement. “Animal Companions, Mounts, Familiars and other pets of natural or arcane design are welcome free of charge in our stable, rooms and lobby. With the purchase of a room, meal or drink, they’ll be treated with their own meals.” 

“What a nice business practice.” Caduceus speaks, his rumbling, calm baritone voice matching well with the warm atmosphere. He takes a seat at one of the tables. 

Caleb and Fjord both take a keen interest in the warhammer hanging above the fireplace and begin discussing the potential properties and origin of the weapon. 

Nott orders food and slides a small purse across the counter, sneaking a note to bring food to the tall pink fellow. She makes sure that the staff knows that there are mounts, animals and pets with the group. Then disappear to take a seat with Caduceus.

Jester waits until after everyone is seated, until everyone has ordered and is deep in conversation to leave her seat to have a word with the slightly eerie, bald elven man behind the counter. He stands a touch over six feet, his vest opens to his chest and as Jester slams both of her hands on top of the counter, she notices he’s wearing a kilt-like garment below the belt. 

“What may be done for the Sapphire?” His voice is a surprising deep pitch that carries a strange melody to it. 

Jester bounces in place, her smile brightens. “Have you met the Ruby?!” 

“I heard flattering tales of the Prized Jewel of the Ocean but I have now met her Azure progeny.” He gestures to Jester, kindly. 

Jester preens before the elven innkeeper and she digs in her pink haversack, pulling the price of the room from the bag. “I’d like two keys for the Embermare Imperial.” She whispers, trying to keep her insane spending a secret. Ten small coins made of platinum shine on the countertop.

“It is a pleasure for us to host the Sapphire and her guest of choice.” Two keys materialize out of thin air and into Jester’s open palm. “Enjoy your meals and your rest. I’ll depart and prepare your stay this very moment.” He swipes his hand over the coins and they’re gone, jingling into his palm. 

Jester rejoins the table where her friends are. They’re listening to Caleb explain the kind of magic that empowers the hammer above the hearth. “It’s fascinating and quite obviously bardic magic. The enchantment takes root in the meaning of the words rather than the arbitrary decisions of the enchanter and takes the concept of fire to unusual directions…” 

Caleb rambles on for a while, losing Beau’s interested when he starts talking about the minutiae of the magic. That’s when Jester slides her the key, when no one is watching, no one catches her doing. (Caduceus notices, but doesn’t make anything of it.). 

Beau looks at the key curiously, but hides it inside of her outfit, accepting it with a wink and discreet nod. “Yo Caleb.” 

“Ja?” It’s unclear if he’s messing with Beau when he replies with that kind of sound, but he doesn’t seem surprised when the table erupts into a soft round of laughter. 

“Nothing, but I felt like you were losing a few of us with the details on fire magic.” Beau makes a playful rude gesture to Caleb.

The conversation slowly turn to slightly more mundane topics from then.

* * *

Jester leaves the table first, curious about the Embermare Imperial and uninterested by whatever conversation goes on following the meal. One flight of stairs and she’s on the first floor with a list of numbered rooms and the Mare’s Hearth. Another flight of stairs and another list, this one still doesn’t have the Ember Imperial on it but contain most of the other suite. 

The last flight of stairs leads to a door with a small sign on it Ember Imperial. Jester tries to open the door, but it’s locked. “Oh sweet Traveler, the room takes the whole floor?” she pulls the key from the pocket of her dress and unlocks it. 

The room is vast, luxurious and decadent in scope and decors. Paintings on the walls depicts views from very specific perches. One of them is oddly familiar, a painting of the Barbed fields, as view from atop the really large tree. Another one depicts a city made of white stones, another is a field of flowers with an erupting volcano in the background. A tray of drinks of various sorts is arranged on a table, with a small menu of additional liquor with additional fees. (the Sandkeg’s hide is listed at a staggering 40 gold for one glass).

Beyond that table lies the bed, a large, vast affair with a comforter made out of several wolf pelts sewn together, pillows with the bright red outline of birds over them, warmth to the touch and the softest object Jester’s ever touched. 

Beyond the bed is a balcony, which oversees the fields north of the road’s they’ve been following, flowers and grass dancing to the wind, herds of bison roaming free and distant mountains with their peaks lost in the clouds. 

Two doors in the room. One hides a kitchen and what’s needed to brew tea and soup, and should guests desire so, an impressive stockpile of sweets of various kinds. The others a private room with basic necessities, along with a bath, soap and a complimentary bottle of perfume.

“Oh sweet traveler…” Jester cover her face with both hands, as reality comes pressing down onto her mind. She peeks between her fingers. She’s about to stomp out of the room, demand the manager gives her a room with two beds, but she comes face to face with a stunned beau.

“You paid a hundred gold for this room!?” Eyes wide and arms thrown open, Beauregard is a human sized question mark for a moment. “Jester why?!” even as she question, it’s hard for her not to smile. 

“I paid ten platinum, not 100 gold!” Jester pouts, pretending it’s not the same. She taps her foot on the floor. “And I wanted to have something comfortable and nice, I wanted to have my roommate again! “ The little blue tiefling rambles and rant on. “There’s tea and soup! Bath, soap and perfume! There’s magic warm pillows! A view on the balcony.” 

“Okay, why are you angry?” Beau questions, confused at the contrast of the list and the tone by which is being delivered to her. 

“Because there’s only one bed and I thought that by asking two keys I was making myself obvious and now someone has to sleep on the ground and I’m going to end up alone!” Jester crosses her arms over her chest, looking away from Beau. Her pout changes from angry to sad.. 

Beauregard walks past Jester after patting her shoulder. She beholds the sight of the balcony, curious about the gentle draft running through the room, then studies the size of the bed, amused. “Jester, unless we sprawl on the bed, there’s plenty of space for the both of us to sleep on opposite ends.” She picks up one of the pillows and feels it. “Oh, they’re  _ warm _ ”

Jester keeps her pout, but most of the actual anger leaves with Beau’s assessment of the situation and she sits on the end of the bed. “It’s probably magic.” 

“Oh no, this is even better than magic.” Beau throws the pillow at Jester, who catches it with her face. “I’ve seen one of those before. It’s a pillow stuffed with feathers from a firebird.” 

“Firebird? You mean like the Phoenix?” Jester asks with her face buried deep into the warm, fluffy object.

“Not like the weird bird in the carvings we saw.” Beau shake her head and sit down. “Though it’s a fairly common misconception. Firebirds look like flamingos and they live in some specific swamp down south and I… can’t remember the name of the place. A lot of travelers mistake them for phoenixes though.” Beau grabs the other pillow and stuff her face into it too. “Their feathers are worth a lot. These pillows are probably the most valuable thing in the room.” 

“You know, sometimes I forget you’re that smart.” Jester throws the pillow right back at Beauregard and the monk catches it mid-air with only one hand. She crawls over the bed and crash down over the wolf pelts and stare up at the ceiling. “I mean like, Caleb-smart.” 

To conceal the deepening blush on her cheek, Beau drops the 2nd pillow right over Jester’s face before laying down on her own side of the bed. Holding her own warm pillow over her chest. “Thanks, Jester. That’s really nice of you to say.” 

“Beau! I’m not  _ just _ saying it.” Jester put the pillow under her head. “You keep thinking of smart stuff, like Caleb. You just have different things in your toolbox.” the cleric reach her blue hand to feel one of Beau’s ‘tools’, squeezing her bicep. 

“Caduceus’ been rubbing off on you.” Before Jester can even laugh about the double entendre, Beau nips the joke in the bud. “No, not like that.” 

Jester giggles, her eyes closing. “Oof, I might just fall asleep right now.” And she does, snoring lightly. 

Beau slides off of the bed. 

* * *

Jester wakes up and the sun has already set, the room is only lit by a few candles. Beau isn’t next to her or anywhere in sight. She sit up in the bed, the soft wind that ran through the room when they came in is absent, the door to the balcony is closed. The blue tiefling dig into her haversack and pull out her nightdress and sneak into the side room to change. 

Beau’s on the balcony, she sees her silhouette against the darkening skies as she returns from changing her outfit. She gets under the covers of the bed, the weight of the wolf pelts, the warmth of the pillow and the softness of the bed creates one of the comfortable feeling Jester’s ever experienced

.

Beau slides back into the room after a few more minutes admiring the sky above the fields, she blows a few candles out on her way to the bed. Thinking Jester asleep she pulls her traveling outfit off of her back, leaving her torso entirely bare. She rummages through her bag to pull out her night shirt, but struggle to find it in the dark. 

Jester watches as Beau sit on the edge of the bed, her naked back toward her as she curse her missing shirt under her breath. Jester doesn’t know what pushes her to speak; maybe it’s the traveler granting her a bit of courage. “You don’t need the shirt Beau.” and she reaches, lunges really, wrapping an arm around Beau’s midsection. Instead of pulling Beau further into the bed, she ends up pulling herself closer to the other woman.

Whatever protest Beauregard tries to call upon, it dies in her throat when her skin shivers at the touch of Jester’s lips slowly moving up her back. Her shoulder slumps. “Jester?” It’s a thousand questions with one word. 

“I miss her too. I’m sad about her too.” Another short burst of kisses across her shoulder blades. “You told me about your loneliness and I told you about mine.” Jester tilt her head and let the tip of her horn graze against Beauregard’s neck. “I don’t… I won’t let you be alone. I don’t want to.” There’s a few seconds of silence before Jester speaks again. “Beau?” 

“I…” She leans back a little, tempted to give in right then and there. She feels the brush of Jester’s hair across her shoulders and the warmth against her naked back. Her right hand settles over the arm holding her. “I don’t want to be alone either. I miss her, I don’t want to just give up on her.” Beau takes a deep, deep breath. “What I’m really trying to say here is that I don’t want you to just be… another carpet.” Beau winces at the horribly awkward metaphor. 

It’s too hard for Jester not to burst out laughing against her back. A genuine, gut-deep laugh, during which she only clings harder to Beau.

Beau laugh too, taken by Jester’s immediate laugh and she falls back into the bed, her head resting on Jester’s lap. One blue hand now tracing her abs, the other grazing her scalp tenderly. 

“I don’t have to be just another rug. I can learn how to share and not get jealous when you kiss girls.” Jester affirms a little too loudly for it to be entirely sincere. 

“Me kissing Reani really bothered you?” Beau asks, just basking in the moment.

“Yes, but It didn’t bother me when you spent time with Yasha.” Jester speaks quickly, trying hard not to shut out beau like she often does when embarrassed.

Beau reach for one of Jester’s horns and trace the length of it with her finger, using it to guide the tiefling down closer to her own face. 

Jester is the one to initiate first, place a soft, gentle kiss on Beau’s lips. Closing her eyes. “We don’t have to…”

Beau strains for a moment and get under the covers, pulling the whole thing over them, like a shield against the rest of the world. She kisses Jester again, deeper, hotter. Her hands seeks the lacing of her night dress, but they end up trapped by Jester’s tail.

“Is there something you wanted Beau?” Jester plays innocent as she settles on top, a wry smile on her lips as her tail tighten around the monk’s wrists.

“I wanted to see what you’re already seeing of me.” Beau’s eyes dip down to her own exposed chest. “You know, just making things even and fair.”

Jester laughs and press another kiss on Beau’s lips, laughing into it. As Beau is distracted by the kiss, she uses the freedom of her hands to pull her sleep dress down to expose herself for her lover’s benefit. “Fair?” 

“So fair.” Beau dive for another kiss, hungry for more.

**Author's Note:**

> The Firebird pillows were inspired by one of my favorite items I've ever encountered in D&D. I was playing a really fancy sorcerer back in 3.5rd edition and one of the treasure we found during our adventure was a cushion made out of Phoenix's feathers. 
> 
> The thing was worth around 5000 gold and was a vanity item made to be sold off for the gold. I loved the idea so much that I kept it.


End file.
